Procaccini named new principal at Fall River's Kuss Middle School

One of the city’s Level 4 schools is about to get a new leader. Superintendent Meg Mayo-Brown said Michael Procaccini has been appointed the principal at the Matthew J. Kuss Middle School, effective July 1. Procaccini has served as the director of Career and Technical Education at B.M.C. Durfee H...

Superintendent Meg Mayo-Brown said Michael Procaccini has been appointed the principal at the Matthew J. Kuss Middle School, effective July 1. Procaccini has served as the director of Career and Technical Education at B.M.C. Durfee High School for the past four years and previously held the same positions in the Dighton-Rehoboth school system.

Procaccini will be assuming the leadership position at one of the district’s three Level 4 schools, a term that replaced the tag “chronically underperforming.” Kuss was the first school in the state to earn such a distinction in 2004. Mullen was hired prior to the start of the 2005-2006 school year.

Mayo-Brown credited Mullen with creating an atmosphere at Kuss that is built on academics while making the curriculum “come alive for the kids.” In addition to the improvements in learning, Mullen also oversaw the school’s move from the facility on Rock Street to a new building on Globe Mills Avenue along the banks of Mount Hope Bay.

“She’s meant so much,” Mayo-Brown said of the retiring principal. “She took a school with the lowest performance in the state at the time, one that had parents pulling out their kids at an alarming rate and where staff wanted to leave, to what is now a school that is held in the highest regard and now there’s a waiting list to get into the school.”

Mullen came to Fall River after a career that included serving as the principal of two Providence high schools.

Despite Mullen’s ability to bring improvement at Kuss the school has retained its Level 4 designation. Mayo-Brown said she does not expect the transition to Procaccini to result in any losses of the gains made during Mullen’s tenure.

She said Procaccini has already begun meeting with Mullen and spent time at the school last week to gain an understanding of the daily flow. Procaccini has also invited Mullen to return to the school and participate in regular leadership meetings throughout the school year.

“Nancy has done a really great job getting the school to where it is and I wanted to spend some time with her so I could really hit the ground running,” Procaccini said.

Procaccini said he has also participated in the National Institute for School Leadership training, which has been offered by the state since 2005 to prepare educators for potential leadership roles. He said he plans to bring a mentality to the position that involves letting employees perform in the roles they’ve been assigned.

“I see the principal as the executive of the building,” Procaccini said. “The teachers are the ones on the ground. The principal’s job is to provide resources and keep the road clear so they can do their job.”

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Mayo-Brown also pointed to an expansion of science, technology, engineering and math program currently at Durfee into the middle school level as one of Procaccini’s strengths.

“It really is what is needed to drive education,’ he said. “So hopefully we’ll be a leg up. They’ve done a great job getting Kuss to where they are now and now we can build on that.”